That missing safeguard matters: All Apple products use Data Execution Prevention, or DEP, a feature that prevents malicious code from running its own commands.
The first is known as data execution prevention, or DEP, a measure designed to prevent hackers from hijacking programs by sneaking their own commands into what is meant to be harmless content like pictures or text.
The difference in this case, experts say, is that the Virtual PC vulnerability is the symptom of a larger problem lurking beneath the surface: assuming that protections such as ASLR, DEP and SafeSEH will always be around to save us.